Software
Control of Station Equipment
LP-Rotor
LP-Footswitch
LP-Status
Custom Software
Above is a screen capture of my laptop computer as it appears when
I'm
running my station remotely. The rig-control program is
TRX-Manager
from F6DEX, www.trx-manager.com,
which appears on the left. TRX-Manager has many more window
panels
available for things like web cluster, cw keyer, etc., but these are
the
ones I normally leave open. This is a great little program...check it
out.
Below is a description of my programs, with some links for more
detailed
info and downloading instructions. There is also a little blurb
about
my remote control setup, with more to come.
LP-Remote program
The program in the upper right of the above screen capture is a
freeware
program I wrote called LP-Remote. It works in conjunction with
my LP-Remote control board. You can find more info on the LP-Remote page.
LP-Rotor program
In the upper right of the above screen capture, above LP-Monitor and
to the right of TRX-Manager, is the LP-Rotor program. The program
is designed as a standalone control panel for rotors using Hy-Gain
DCU-1 protocol. This includes Hy-Gain rotators using
the
DCU-1 or IdiomPress RotorEZ interfaces, select Yaesu rotators using the
IdiomPress RotorCard
interface or almost any rotor using the Green Heron RT-20
controller.
For more info on RotorEZ and RotorCard, see www.idiompress.com/
For info on the Green Heron RT-20 see www.greenheronengineering.com
LP-Rotor provides a high resolution display that continuously shows antenna position, and allows for four different ways to enter preset position data, including a slider bar, point/click/drag to heading with the mouse, keyboard entry and DDE linking to the very nice rig-control/logging program TRX-Manager. LP-Rotor provides for reverse antenna mounting and mounting offset adjustments.
For more extensive information about setup and operation of LP-Rotor, check out LP-Rotor Help.
LP-Rotor can be downloaded by going to the Downloads
page.
LP-Meters program
LP-Meters is a program that provides auxilliary meters for monitoring Kenwood meter functions as an add-on to TRX-Manager (www.trx-manager.com). As shown above, you can select from two different styles...one that tries to match the look of TRX-Manager, and one that matches the look of the other "LP" programs. The top meter in each case continuously monitors S-Meter, and when the rig transmits it displays Power Output. The bottom meter displays either SWR, COMP or ALC depending on which function is selected in the S-Meter section of the monitoring window of TRX-Manager. The program must be used with TRX-Manager, and uses the OLE functionality of TRX to communicate with the Rig and TRX. For more information, check out....LP-Meters Help.
LP-Meters can be downloaded from the Downloads
page.
LP-Footswitch is a program which allows external switch control of the PTT function in TRX-Manager. It will work with any rig, and any keying mode supported by TRX-Manager. It will also work either locally, or through TRX-Remote when run on the Master PC. The program uses the CTS handshaking pin on a serial port to interface to an isolated pair of switch contacts such as those on a footswitch. In addition, it also allows keying of a rig from the footswitch or TRX-Manager that doesn't offer a software PTT command. The DTR pin is used for this function. Details on setup and operation can be found in the following html help file.
Detailed info available at LP-Footswitch Help.
Download program - LP-FootSwitch.zip
LP-Status is a program which is designed to use the handshaking pins of a serial port to provide on/off status indications. Three pins are supported, allowing three parameters to be monitored. The program is mainly designed to allow monitoring of parameters at a remote base site. This can be accomplished by the use of remote desktop sharing programs like pcAnywhere, winVNC or XP Remote Desktop. The program can also be used with a serial device server.
The hardware interface requires just a DB9 connector and three relays or opto-isolators to isolate the remote function to be monitored from the serial pins. The names in the text boxes can be changed to suit your needs, and are stored in memory. The "LED"s light green when the remote switch is closed. Here is a sample interface circuit that would work with LP-Status...
Detailed info available at LP-Status Help.
Download program - LP-Status.zip
Custom
Remote Control Software
